“On The Smugglers’ Radar” is a new feature for books that have caught our eye: books we heard of via other bloggers, directly from publishers, and/or from our regular incursions into the Amazon jungle. This is how the Smugglers’ Radar was born, and because there are far too many books that we want than we can possibly buy or review (what else is new?) we thought we could make it into a weekly feature – so YOU can tell us which books you have on your radar as well!

On Ana’s Radar:

I read Darkborn by Alison Sinclair last year and I really enjoyed it (although not as much as Maya expected me to) and have been looking forward to reading the sequel ever since. (Thanks goes to Kmont for the cover).

The Darkborn aristocracy has rejected magic, viewing the pursuit of science as the only worthy goal. But Lady Telmaine Hearne does not have that luxury. She has kept her own powers secret, fearful of being ruined in society… until her husband Balthasar draws her into a conspiracy to protect the archduke and his brother against a magical enemy. But who will protect them from her?

We were offered these two YA books for review last week and I thought they sounded interesting, plus I like the covers:

Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life—and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Bailey’s boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie’s own. Joe is the new boy in town, a transplant from Paris whose nearly magical grin is matched only by his musical talent. For Lennie, they’re the sun and the moon; one boy takes her out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But just like their celestial counterparts, they can’t collide without the whole wide world exploding.

This remarkable debut is perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, and Francesca Lia Block. Just as much a celebration of love as it is a portrait of loss, Lennie’s struggle to sort her own melody out of the noise around her is always honest, often hilarious, and ultimately unforgettable.

Click. Sukie Jamieson takes a selfie after her tennis lesson. Click. She takes one before she has to give a presentation in class. Click. She takes one to be sure there’s nothing in her teeth after eating pizza at Clementi’s. And if she can’t take a selfie, she checks her reflection in windows, spoons, car chrome—anything available, really. So when her mother gives her an exquisite full-length mirror that once belonged to her grandmother, Sukie is thrilled. So thrilled that she doesn’t listen to her mother’s warning: “This mirror will be your best friend and worst enemy.” Because mirrors, as Sukie discovers, show not only the faraway truth but the truth close up. And finding out that close-up truth changes people. Often forever.

Acclaimed novelist and screenwriter Delia Ephron crafts a powerful novel of truth, beauty, and the secrets about family and friends that lie beneath perfection.

Joanna Bourne is a fabulous romance writer and it was about time someone gave her a cover that did not have ridiculous man-tity in it. I can’t wait to read Maggie and Doyle’s book ! (Thanks to KB for this one. No blurb yet, though) .

And will you look at this incredible cover? I really need to start reading this series. Book one, Devil’s Kiss has been sitting on my TBR pile for ages now.

After the death of her soulmate Kay by her very own sword, Billi SanGreal has thrown herself into the brutal regime of Templar duties with utter abandon. There is no room for feelings any more – her life is now about hunting down the Unholy. But when Billi and another Knight Templar are caught at the heart of a savage werewolf attack, only Billi survives – except for a young girl at the scene who Billi unthinkingly drags away with her as they escape. But Vasalisa is no ordinary girl. She is an avatar with an uncontrollable power – and it’s not only the werewolves who want her. Billi has to flee to the frosty climes of Russia, with a human timebomb who, it seems, could destroy the world . . .

And finally, when I was about to close my part of the post, I saw this at Persephone Reads and nearly drowned the keyboard with so much drooling. This sounds and looks, AWESOME:

“Sometime in the future, after devastating wars and fires, a lonely, windswept island in the north is populated solely by women. Among these women is a group of teenaged Trackers—expert equestrians and archers—whose job is to protect their shores from the enemy. The enemy, they’ve been told, is men. When these girls come upon a partially buried home from the distant past, they are fascinated by the strange objects—high-heeled shoes, teen magazines, makeup—found there. What are they to make of these mysterious things, which introduce a world they have never known? And what does it mean for their strict society, where friendship is forbidden and rules must be obeyed—at all costs?”

On Thea’s Radar

I love but am also ever-so-slightly peeved that Ana’s reading tastes are morphing into “Thea territory” – it sucks when she sets up these posts while I’m diligently working on book reviews, and she TAKES ALL MY COVERS! Ahem. Anyways….

This title is one that I heard of via dystopian/apocalyptic blogger extraordinaire, Rhiannon Hart during Smugglivus. The US cover has been released, and I think it warrants reposting:

After climate change, on the north shore of Unlake Superior, a dystopian world is divided between those who live inside the wall, and those, like sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone, who live outside. It’s Gaia’s job to “advance” a quota of infants from poverty into the walled Enclave, until the night one agonized mother objects, and Gaia’s parents disappear.

As Gaia’s efforts to save her parents take her within the wall, she faces the brutal injustice of the Enclave and discovers she alone holds the key to a secret code, a code of “birthmarked” babies and genetic merit.
Fraught with difficult moral choices and rich with intricate layers of codes, BIRTHMARKED explores a colorful, cruel, eerily familiar world where a criminal is defined by her genes, and one girl can make all the difference.

Love this next cover…and yeah, I’m shallow like that sometimes!

When Jame returned to Knorth hall to help her brother Torisen name all the fallen fighters’ death banners stored there, she made the disturbing discovery that thosr banners splattered with their owner’s blood also have trapped their owners’ souls. She also found a contract proving her cousin Kindrie to be legitmate, proving that there are three full-blooded Knorth. Three full-blooded Knorth means that the Three-Faced God can be manifested-something that none of the three are likely to want to do, if they have any choice in the matter..

Returning with this unwelcome knowledge to school at Tentir, Jame continued to dodge the attentions of an unwanted admirer, strengthen her link to her feline hunting ounce, work with the rathorn colt Death’s-head to insure that it doesn’t resume its attempts to kill her, and of course, kept causing plenty of unintended havoc. She also had to help fight off attacks from hillmen, repel a stampede of yarkcarn(think warthogs the size of mamoths), fight in the Winter War(a mock conflict-or, ar least, that’s how it was supposed to be), and solve the mystery behind the death of her evil uncle, who somehow is still spectrally manifesting himself in nasty ways.

No doubt about-it Jame is back, and with vengeance, as the popular and critically-praised fantasy adventure series continues.

This upcoming title from Holly Black looks awesome too:

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers — people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they’re all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn’t got the magic touch, so he’s an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail — he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He’s noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he’s part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.

Holly Black has created a gripping tale of mobsters and dark magic where a single touch can bring love — or death — and your dreams might be more real than your memories.

Then I saw this gorgeous one browsing through the Bantam Spectra website…

In this captivating reinvention of the werewolf novel, S. A. Swann propels readers into the darkest days of the Middle Ages, weaving a rare blend of soaring romance, historical intrigue, paranormal thrills, and spiritual questioning to tell a story that forever changes those who hear it.

When a monk inadvertently discovers a lair of werewolf young, he unleashes what will become the Church’s most powerful–and secret–weapon. Clandestinely raised by the Teutonic Order, these lupine creatures serve as instruments of God against pagan unbelievers. Trained to slip into villages cloaked in human form, they are all but unstoppable. Only one, called Lilly, has cunningly fled her brutal master.

Uldolf is too young to remember the massacre eight years earlier that claimed his village, his arm, and his kin. But he knows the pain of loneliness. When he sees what appears to be a beautiful young woman, injured and cowering in the woods, he races to her aid. Uldolf and his adoptive family will do anything to protect the terrified girl, but the danger is greater than they can possibly imagine. For death is the only life Lilly has ever known–and if their humanity can’t pierce the darkness Lilly harbors in her soul, they’ll soon come to know it, too.

Apparently pre-cognitive teens are the new thing, considering these next two titles:

A gripping debut novel that deals with death, fate, and a teen girl’s ability to change them both.

Sixteen-year-old Cassandra Renfield has always seen the mark—a light glow reminiscent of candlelight. The only time she pointed it out taught her she shouldn’t do it again. For years, the mark has followed Cassie, its rare appearances odd, but insignificant. Until the day she watches a man die. As she revisits each occurrence of the mark, Cassie realizes she can see a person’s imminent death. Not how or where, only when: today.
Now armed with a slight understanding of the mark, Cassie begins to search for it. Even as she hides her secret, Cassie mines her philosophy class, her memories, and even her new boyfriend for answers about the faint glowing mark. But many questions remain. How does it work? Why her? And finally, the most important of all: If you know today is someone’s last, should you tell them?

Ever since she was child, Jem has kept a secret: Whenever she meets someone new, no matter who, as soon as she looks into their eyes, a number pops into her head. That number is a date: the date they will die. Burdened with such awful awareness, Jem avoids relationships. Until she meets Spider, another outsider, and takes a chance. The two plan a trip to the city. But while waiting to ride the Eye ferris wheel, Jem is terrified to see that all the other tourists in line flash the same number. Today’s number. Today’s date. Terrorists are going to attack London. Jem’s world is about to explode!

This is an older release (2008), but it sounds so wonderful, I had to include it:

“I remember the first time I began to understand that things might not be the same again.”

What’s a girl to do when her world is invaded by warriors from the ancient world? That’s the problem faced by sixteen-year-old Macy, who sees her quiet, normal life in suburban Minnesota turned upside down when things that should never be possible begin to transform the landscape all around her. The cable stops working, the phone lines die–and then the horsemen come to town. It’s not the same America that she last went to sleep in.

Ticketed to a refugee camp by the marauding Scythian armies, Macy and her family come to believe that heading down the Mississippi by boat is their one escape from the encroaching madness. But as they make their way downriver, Macy’s world just keeps getting stranger, and the wooden submarines, wasp-borne plagues, and talking dogs are the least of her problems: For in this upside-down world, old identities warp and family bonds are sorely tested.

And, finally, saw this over at Aidan’s blog, A Dribble of Ink. OMG. This cover is…there are no words.

I wonder what market they are trying to tap into?

And that’s it for us! How about you? Any new titles you’ve got on your radars?

Day 5 (21 days to Smugglivus and counting)

Who: Joanna Bourne, writer of romance novels who released her first novel The Spymaster’s Lady (our review), in early January with a bang – as the writer has been acclaimed for her unique narrative “voice” all over the place. You can read an interview we did with Joanna Bourne here.

Recent work: My Lord and Spymaster – reviewed here.

Ladies and gentlemen, Joanna Bourne and her favourite reads of 2008:
_________

Joanna:

Let me start out with three great RITA winners and a Finalist. They blew my socks off.

Madeleine Hunter, Lessons of Desire. I always love her work. Dense. Enticing. Sensual. A rare pleasure.

Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave. A new-to-me writer. Historical mystery. I love the complex, intelligent interaction between H&H. I have her next book, Silent in the Sanctuary, on my TBR shelf.

Julia Quinn, The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever. I spend my whole time chuckling when I read Quinn. You just fall into the delight.

Anna Campbell, Claiming the Courtesan. (I loved Untouched, too.) High-stakes H&H interaction. Intense writing. Compelling.

Leesee … who else?

Strangers in Death, by JD Robb. With the In-Death series … it’s like you got a box of milk-chocolate-covered nuts. You know they’re all going to be good. (Even the Brazil nut, which is one of those odd, semi-edible things where you ask yourself, ‘What was God thinking?’) Anyhow, if we’re doing this chocolates simile . . . Strangers is when you pick the piece of candy out and it’s almonds and almonds are your favorites.

His Captive Lady by Anne Gracie. I just finished this one last week. Lovely writing. Gotta love that Gracie.

Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas. She took a whole bunch of writerly risks. It all works. Character driven by unusual characters.

Simply Magic by Mary Balogh. Intelligent Romance, as always. I find her characters appealing on so many levels. I always think I’d like to know them.

Your Scandalous Ways by Loretta Chase. Spies. Venice. Intrigue. Hero and Heroine conflict. Loretta Chase. What more could one possibly ask?

His Dark and Dangerous Ways by Edith Layton. One of my long-time favorite authors. I was looking forward to this one. Multi-layer and realistic characters.

Oh, let me mention a really nifty anthology –

It Happened One Night. This is Stephanie Laurens, Mary Balogh, Jacquie D’alessandro, and Candice Hern. They rounded up a whole bunch of my favorite authors and put ‘em all in one book.
I mean … What are the odds?

I’ve left off scads of great 2008 books because they are sitting three deep and densely packed in the TBR shelf. I haven’t had time to READ them.

My TBR shelf is like …
You know how your refrigerator whispers about the piece of pumpkin pie you got on the bottom shelf (… pie …pie … pie …pie …) every time you walk by and you gotta go tiptoeing off real fast with your hands over your ears … (“Lah lah lah lah) TBR shelf is like that.

Jo

NEXT ON SMUGGLIVUS: OUR FIRST THE FLASH SMUGGLIVUS WEEKEND GIVEAWAY. TOMORROW!

Title: My Lord and Spymaster

Author: Joanna Bourne

Review number: 59

Genre: Historical romance

Stand Alone/ Series: It is a stand alone novel but with secondary characters that first appeared in The Spymaster’s Lady.

Summary: After her father is wrongly accused of selling secrets to Napoleon, lovely Jess Whitby infiltrates the London underworld for the real traitor—only to end up naked in the bed of a rude merchant captain. Not only is she falling in love with him, but he may be the scoundrel she’s looking for.

Why did I read the book: Because I loved Joanna Bourne’s The Spymaster’s Lady which was released early 2008. I thought it was one of the best romance novels I read lately and I wanted to see what Joanna Bourne would come up with next.

Review:

Jess Whitby is a respectable young lady. At the moment. It wasn’t always like that. At the age of 8, when her father disappeared and her mother was sick, she had to sell herself to Lazarus, the man that rules the streets of London, in order to survive. Jess was always smart, cunning and quick and for that soon became a great pickpocket and a very important member of the gang – she was Jess The Hand and everybody respected her including Lazarus himself ( think Artful Dodger and Fagin. ). Until one day, when she was eleven and her father came back and took her away – she then had to endure lessons on how to become a lady. But she also used all of her intelligence and expertise in helping her father to build their shipping empire – he was the dealer, Jess was the brains behind the operations.

And it’s now that all of her savoir faire, her past as a street urchin and her new money will be very useful: she is all alone again, as her father has been arrested by the secret service as a traitor to the country accused of being the spy known as Cinq, selling out secrets to France. And she must prove his innocence by any means necessary: she bribes, she hires, she searches until she comes up with a system to devise how and when Cinq would have taken the secrets out of the country and this his how she has a list of possible suspects. Unbeknownst to her, she is also being used by the secret service to do so – there are many factions trying to figure out who Cinq is and the plot is even thicker than we first think, because all of them are on to each other , spies spying all over and Jess is the one who is free enough do get away in the underworld and get to the truth.

Our story begins and Jess is about to have an encounter with Captain Sebastian Kennett, one of her suspects. She is to pretend to be a lady in distress and run into him and while he is protecting her, she will pick his pockets to see if he is carrying anything secret. Sebastian who is no fool, realises it is all a plan but thinks she is just a whore trying to rob him, a whore he would very much like to hire for the evening. But before they can do much, they are attacked by a bunch of Irish and Jess gets hit in the head. Bastian takes her to his ship to tend to her wounds and it’s there and then that instinct hits and he is certain that Jess is HIS. It doesn’t matter who she is or who she belongs to – the point is moot, she is to belong to him and him alone, possibly forever. At first he is really tender and careful to her but unfortunately for both of them, Sebastian is the very person who, in a personal vendetta against Cinq, found the proof that eventually condemned her father. Upon realising she is the daughter of his enemy, he soon goes from tender to cruel but that nagging feeling, that instinct that tells him that she is his to take, to protect, to seduce won’t let go. And he decides to help her prove her father’s innocence if it’s what it takes to make her trust him.

As with the The Spymaster’s Lady, the book belongs entirely to the heroine – it is her story, her path that we must follow. If in The Spymaster’s Lady, Annique had to make a possibly life changing decision about French plans to invade England, here we must follow Jess and her struggle to prove her father’s innocence and later, Bastian’s. It is her struggle, her fight and its on her side that I fell – it is impossible for us not to love her as it is impossible for Bastian either.

Joanna Bourne writes great heroines –some of the best I have seen. They are cunning, resourceful and I loved to follow Jess’ antics. She is a woman that will rely in no one to save her – she will go ahead and get everything done. She is very sarcastic and with a keen eye for everything around her and a quick tongue. I loved how she could be deceitful in front of others and kept using what another character called barnyard metaphors such as when she says:

“ Prosaic as a hen’s egg, that’s me”

But prosaic she most certainly is not. And even if she does stupid things she is always aware that she is probably putting herself in danger. She doesn’t think herself invulnerable; she just thinks she doesn’t have a choice – even though Sebastian would do anything for her, it is later rather than sooner that she will actually trust him. Even if she knows and it’s again, aware, of the sexual tension – there is not denial here that they both feel for each other: “They both knew what was going on. There wasn’t enough ignorance in this room to cover the palm of her hand”. But we feel that she will not let herself be all that she can be around him until she is 100% certain that he is not Cinq. Jess is one of those heroines I respect – because she has everything going for her. Not only brains, looks and courage but also self-respect combined with self-conscious fragility and vulnerability.

Now, for the hero. Unfortunately this is where my one problem with the book lies and where I had the same problem with The Spymaster’s Lady. We have a couple of heroines that are greater than life and when compared to the heroes , the latter fall flat and much less fleshed-out. Even though Sebastian is clearly a good man, heroic, possessive and obviously in love with Jess I still needed to know more about him. Not only that: he has a facet that I do not find appealing in romance heroes which is to use the sexual tension with the heroine to gain ground, being overbearing and much self-confident in his sexual power. I was especially frustrated at how he keep repeating that he would do this, do that and that she WOULD fall in bed with him soon muwahahaha. Stop threatening and do it already Sebastian, let’s see if you can get away with it, big boy.

Even if the hero is not all that, the book is still very good. Joanna Bourne has a very distinctive style of narrative that I find very alluring: the way she constructs sentences or how the inner dialogues of each character flows which was present in the Spymaster’s Lady and it ’s present here. On top of that she had built an interesting and believable world of espionage with a very complex plot.

And speaking of espionage , this review would not be complete without mentioning Adrian Hawke. The young spy who was friends with Annique and Grey back in The Spymaster’s Lady and how has captured the attention of many readers. In My Lord and Spymaster he is a few years old and now is Head of the British Service and we learn a few more tidbits about his past that has left me wanting even more: he was also in the service of Lazarus when a child; he has loved or loves, a French woman and he spent some time in Russia where he became close to Jess. His role in the book is quite big as he is friends with both hero and heroine and is somewhat the master that put things in motion. His hands are tied as Head of the Service and he has to rely on Jess to bring the real Cinq to justice.

And talking about secondary characters: there is a ferret named Kedger who is not only a pet but accessory to Jess’ actions!

I wouldn’t say this is better or au pair with The Spymaster’s Lady but Joanna Bourne is definitely one to watch and read.

Notable quotes/ Parts: There is a whole sequence of events that lead Jess to go back to Lazarus and ask for his help. It is a potentially deadly situation since the gang thinks Jess has betrayed them. Plus she still belongs to him. Sebastian, of course, as the Hero thinks he is the only one that can save her. It is very sweet of him, really. Anyways, it ends with Lazarus selling Jess to Bastian for one shilling (oh, the ignominy). I have to give him credit though as he does not use it to his own satisfaction and when Jess wanted to buy herself back this is how it went:

“He cupped the back of her head, into that hair all gold and brown, and fitted her close to him and held her string and comfortable till her body stopped quivering. The whole noisy world stretched out on every side, and he had the most important part of it right in his hands.
“Who do you belong to, Jess?”
He asked, real quiet.
“I belong to myself”
“Good. That’s a start. Do you have a shilling on you?”
She looked up at him. “Yes”
“Hand it over”
She fumbled in a pocket among the farthings and pence and picked one out. Not as new and shinny as the one he’d given out for her, but a perfectly workable shilling.
“There,” he said. “You’ve bought your soul back. Take better care of it next time.” He tucked the shilling away safe in his watch pocket.
She said, “Don’t spend it all on sausages”.

Additional Thoughts: The fantabulous Katie(babs) also has an ARC review coming up today.

Check it out : Ramblings on Romance

Verdict: Well writen, with fantastic inner dialogues. I adore the heroine. Recommended.

Rating: 7

My Lord and Spymaster is out in July.

Joanna Bourne is the author of the The Spymaster’s Lady, a Romance novel that was released in January and has received rave reviews all over Romanceland. It is a book about a French Spy, Annique, who has to make a decision regarding Napoleon’s plans to invade England while at the same dealing with her feelings for Grey, a British spy. We absolutely adored the book and the review is here:http://thebooksmugglers.blogspot.com/2008/01/book-review-spymasters-lady.html

Joanna lives in the Appalachians with her family and is fascinated with the time period when her novel is set. I “met” her over at the Julia Quinn’s Bulletin Board where The Spymaster’s Lady was the book of the month and everyone was discussing it. I was impressed by her openness about her book and how she replied to everyone; so I sent her an email asking if she could have a chat with us about her book and she was kind enough to say yes! We were extremely happy and thankful, even more so when we received her answers which are truly amazing and interesting.

So without further ado, a chat with Jo Bourne:

The Book Smugglers: First of all, we would like to congratulate you on the success of your book. It must be a great feeling, especially since it is your first novel. What do you think of the reactions so far?

Jo: It’s not actually the first book. Waaaay back — twenty years ago — I wrote a Regency Romance. It’s long out of print. Deservedly so .

Somebody asked about it recently. I found a copy in the attic and flipped through and kinda shuddered and just longed to reach in and edit it. It’s like those pictures in the High School yearbook where you wish you could go back and change your hair.

Between that tadpole of a book and the adult frog, Spymaster’s Lady, I worked for the government and wrote a heap of non-fiction. The craft in making non-fiction and fiction is a lot the same. To me, it all feels like a continuum.

As to the reaction to Spymaster’s Lady. Gobsmacked is the word that comes to mind. There are folks I’ve read for years who’ve said they like the book. My book. I go walking about the house muttering, “She liked it.”

You may color me amazed, with little dabs of dismayed around the corners.

The Book Smugglers: Can you tell us a bit about how the book came to be? When did you first have the idea of Annique and Grey’s story?

Jo: It’s always seemed to me Romance genre books look at the Napoleonic Wars from the English side only.

And yet … the French have all the good lines. They’re the ones promoting all those good things like liberty, equality, separation of church and state, universal male suffrage, anti-slavery, the end of aristocratic privilege. The British are defending an unfair status quo. On the other hand, the French go about cutting heads off and conquering Europe, which makes it what you might call … complicated.

I wanted a conflict between hero and heroine over these ideals and complications. Not resolving them, but making choices, the way we do in an imperfect world. And that’s the Spymaster’s Lady. It’s about choices.

Anyhow. I was living in France at the time. I’d been mulling over the kind of story that would hold these conflicts, trying to think how I’d work it. One night I was headed down to the Normandy coast after dark. Got myself lost, which I do a fair amount. I was driving along and I could just ’see’ Annique coming this same way, scared and determined, carrying some kind of secret, trying to get to the Channel. That’s when I knew she’d be the French one and the hero would be English.

So Annique grew out of that sense of determination and being lost in the dark.

The Book Smugglers: Each of your characters has a very distinct voice and one of the things that is being said all around Romanceland is how the accents were perfectly portrayed in the writing. Do you speak any other languages? If so, did it help with the characterisation?

Jo: I do speak workaday French. Nothing fluent.

I’d like to say I did immensely clever linguistic things to make the accents. But it was nine-tenths listening to the accent I wanted, (eavesdropping, movies, and TV,) hour after hour and trying to get it inside me. In the end, I’d ‘hear’ the character voice in that accent. I have a strong ‘audio’ in my head of how the characters sound.

I did make a conscious decision to stick to cadence and word order and vocabulary to represent the accent rather than lacing the text with foreign words and phonetic spelling. With Annique thinking in French and speaking French for half the story, anything more intrusive would have got old real fast.

Also — I was writing in deep ‘character point of view’. What this means — Annique lets the reader into her mind. We’re in the scene, thinking Annique’s thoughts, feeling her feelings, living the action around her. And we’re doing it all in Annique’s ‘voice’.

I chose to make the ‘voice’ we hear in Annique’s head match Annique’s ‘voice’ in dialog. (Some writers use two different voices for this.) That’s a lotta French voice. So … a light hand with the accent was needed.

The Book Smugglers:The story is set during the Napoleonic Wars between France and England, why did you choose the time period? We are a bit of History buffs and would love to know more about the research involved in writing a historical romance.

Jo: I love the long-ago-in-a-faraway-kingdom feel we have in some Historical Romance — lost heirs and highland Lairds, kidnapped English lasses and earls disguised as highwaymen. You step into Romance history and write ’suspend’ in the disbelief field.

But I want the historical background to be solid, as much as possible. Partly it’s respect for history. I love and respect history, even if I send my characters to play there.

Partly it’s just good practical writing. The more realistic the history, the more plausible the fantasy elements will feel. So you describe perfectly accurate carpet patterns and weaving techniques and fringe length before you mention that, oh yes, and this particular carpet flies. The solid reality of the carpet helps us believe in its magic.

Besides, history is fun, just for its own sake.

I love the Napoleonic Wars, (hmmm … I am putting that badly. Love the era. Hate the bloodshed.) because these were wars about ideas. About how societies should be run. About, y’know, truth and justice and freedom. Good stuff.

As to the big R. Research. I’m a history buff myself. I love reading the original documents — journals, letters, diaries. I’m afraid my eyes glaze over when I’m confronted with “Constitutional History of the Reform Movement’, but I can read Cobbett just for fun.

The Book Smugglers: We know that one of the things that keep non-romance readers from buying romance novels are the clinch covers. As an author, did you have any saying on choosing the cover?

Jo: I had no say at all on the covers. Zilch. Zip. Nada. Nil. Null. None. Nope.

Romance has some of the canniest and most knowledgeable marketing people in the business. I am trying to trust ‘em. It was pointed out — Julia Quinn said this and I’m paraphrasing madly here — that a cover and title that are obviously ‘Romance’ help sell an unknown author to her core readership.

So everybody who picked The Spymaster’s Lady up because you liked the cover — Thank you very much. Everybody who picked it up in spite of the cover — Thank you, thank you.

I remain bewildered over this whole marketing thing.

The Book Smugglers: Here at The Book Smugglers we have a passion for books and we sure have our favourite authors and books? Do you have a favourite book or a favourite author?

Jo:Oh … leesee …

If I had to pick one book, I’d say Windflower by the Curtises. Lovely work. Funny and tender. Very fine.

If you just turned me loose to list my keeper shelf, this is about half of them … (Can you tell my keeper shelf is in alphabetical order?) Peter S. Beagle, Mary Balogh, Jo Beverley, Lois Bujold, Jacqueline Carey, Loretta Chase, Bernard Cornwell, Jennifer Crusie, Tom and Sharon Curtis, Gaelen Foley, Christine Dodd, Jasper Fforde, Dorothy Dunnett, Diana Gabaldon, Roberta Gellis, Sergeanne Golon, Madeline Hunter, Laura Kinsale, Jayne Ann Krentz, Mercedes Lackey, Emma Lathen, Stephanie Laurens, R.A. MacAvoy, Teresa Medeiros, Judith McNaught, Naomi Novik, Peter O’Brian, Elizabeth Peters, Vicki Pettersson, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Mary Jo Putney, Julia Quinn, Nora Roberts, Dorothy Sayers, Anne Stuart, Elizabeth Thornton, Connie Willis, Joan Wolf, Roger Zelazny .

The Book Smugglers: And…. What’s next?

My Lord and Spymaster

Should come out in July. It’s set during the Napoleonic Wars. Jessamyn and Sebastian are international traders from rival companies, making a rich but hazardous living on the fringes of the conflict. Then Jess’s father is accused of treason … by Sebastian.
After that, I’ll be working on Doyle and Maggie’s story.

The Book Smugglers: Wow. Thats sounds awesome. We cannot wait for My Lord and Spymaster!

Once again, thank you so much Joanna for chatting with us. We wish you all the best!